A personal "behind the scenes" insight from the perspectives of CEO-wife and COO-husband power team into what its like to be a family owned and operated small business called EBSCO Spring Company. www.ebscospring.com

A Better Me

In manufacturing, continuous improvement is an essential part of success. I’ve Blogged about it before. When you have an error, you dig to find out the true reason for your error, Root Cause. You then strive to find a solution that will make that error impossible to repeat in the future. Corrective Action.

Why don’t we do that in our personal lives? How many times do we see people, including ourselves repeat the same bad behavior over and over again. We regret the behavior but then do it all over again. How many times do we say or do hurtful things to others, only to repeat them again. We have bad habits (smoking, drinking, overeating) that we know we should stop but don’t. It’s so common that we look at ourselves or the offenders and accept the hurtful behavior as part of who we are. We put it on the balance scale against our good qualities and determine if we will accept it. But why?

Could we take an honest look at ourselves when we behave poorly and determine why we do it. Ask why we act out in that way and what things cause us to do so? Hopefully we don’t want to behave in that way and know we would be better off if we didn’t. If we took an honest look at ourselves, could we find situations to avoid or learn tools to stop us from behaving in that way in the future. Therapist teach people tools to cope with situations. Ways to avoid unwanted behavior. In many cases, if we are honest with ourselves we could do the same thing.

Our behaviors become acceptable to us over time. We may regret the behavior but accept it as on our flaws and move on. Like manufacturing we should be always seeking continuous improvement in ourselves. None of us will ever be perfect but becoming a better us should be an ongoing quest.

I have undertaken a continuous improvement project to lose weight. I spent time looking at why I am over weight and changed behaviors to avoid situations that I eat too much. I have set up support with my wife. We are only buying healthy food to remove temptations. I am weighting weekly to maintain my commitment. Although I have just set out on this challenge, I have set myself up for success removing things that would cause me to slip.

So next time you find yourself behaving in a way you do not like, stop and do your root cause analysis and determine a corrective action for your behavior. Just wishing it away will not work.